Latvia’s forestry industry has always used TTJ with great interests as a source of true and qualitative material. But we were surprised to find in the market report, “Baltics’ reliance on Russian logs grows”, incorrect information that Latvia’s woodworking industry is dependent on Russia’s forest resources and that “Latvian sawmills import 80% of their logs from Russia”.
According to Latvia’s Ministry of Agriculture, in the first 11 months of 2003, round softwood imports reached 236,000m3 and round softwood imports from Russia were 129,300m3. In the same period, Latvia’s exports of sawn softwood were 2,405,600m3. It is impossible to produce this amount of sawn wood from 200,000m3 of roundwood.
According to the import structure, the main deliveries are shared between Russian, Belarus and Lithuania.
H Jordans
Executive director
Latvian Forest Industry Federation
